Common Ground
by QuickStrike15
Summary: Rampage decides to destroy his oppressor Megatron in the only way left he knows...to join Megatron's enemies! Fifth in the series.


Common Ground  
  
WRITTEN BY  
QuickStrike15  
(TieanBrice@aol.com)  
  
Water rushes onto the soft sands of the shore, under the silky blanket of night. Rampage steps up to the tide mark. He stares into the cool evening air, contemplating something in great length. The sea splashes his feet.  
RAMPAGE: "Oooh, my place in this world was fixed, fixed for eternity. But then, a tyrant comes into play, and literally rips my life from me! Then, to a harsher degree, he claims ownership of my soul, and molds it into a lifeform so incredibly inferior to me! I want my spark back! My life should be, will be my own! But I need a plan. And I know just who to turn to..." He turns away from the crashing waves, cackling to himself.  
  
***  
  
Rockhard and Liquida, in Beast Mode, trudge along the beach, with the sun staring at them, high in the sky.  
ROCKHARD: "I don't understand it. Despite our best efforts, we haven't put a stop to these unneeded Beast Wars. I believe we've seriously underestimated these outsiders."  
LIQUIDA: "Well, they have been here for a long time, fighting, recording the lay of the land. They're experts."  
ROCKHARD: "But we created this planet, we should know it better. Right now, I think we need to focus. Megatron is the key. We destroy him, and our mission is complete."  
LIQUIDA: "But we need a plan. We tried that when we got here, and we failed. Megatron is an extremely elusive character."  
ROCKHARD: "You're right. I know we could succeed if we just had something to tip the odds in our favor..." Rampage crawls into view from behind a cliff. "Predacon! Rockhard, Barbarize!"  
LIQUIDA: "Liquida, Barbarize!" They transform to robot mode, and draw their guns.  
RAMPAGE: "There is no need for weapons. I only wish to talk."  
ROCKHARD: "Why should we believe you?" Rampage transforms to robot mode, and dumps all of his weapons.  
RAMPAGE: "That's why."  
ROCKHARD: "Proof enough for me." He and Liquida withdraw their blasters.  
RAMPAGE: "Now, contrary to your beliefs, I have no ties to the Predacons."  
ROCKHARD: "Really now? And all this time, I thought I saw you helping the Predacons win battles. Silly me!"  
RAMPAGE: "Megatron is my enemy, but I have no choice other than to serve him. When I came here, I was strong, and fierce! I could feel the fear of all the life around me! Then, the Maximals defeated me. I went off-line. I opened my eyes for a brief moment, and I saw that evil reptile with an Energon blade. When I came to, half of my spark had been severed. Megatron then showed me my spark in a box, that he could manipulate in order to make me obey. I was from then on a Predacon. And as though that weren't enough, he went to the extreme, placing my spark in the inferior form of that Transmetal 2 Dinobot! Now, when I don't give the right tone, the raptor will squeeze on my essence, and he doesn't even feel it! It's not his to contain in the first place! I want to rip it from his undeserving frame! I vowed to destroy Megatron when I got the chance, and now is it. I believe that if anyone has enough Cybertronian surgical knowledge to enact a spark fusion, it's your team, obviously from having to know your enemy better than you know yourself. You don't play by the rules, and neither do I. If you help me get back and restore my spark, I'll help you destroy Megatron. There's nothing I'd rather do!"  
ROCKHARD: "Your great rage leads me to believe you. We need Megatron destroyed, and with your firepower, we're sure to do it. Welcome to the Vokdroids, Rampage." He and Rampage shake hands.  
  
***  
  
Inside the Predacon Base, Megatron thinks to himself.  
MEGATRON: "The Vokdroids, to go as far as to scan the memory from my soldiers...they will pay for their insolence!" He presses the com button on his control chair. "All Predacons report to center, immediately!" Megatron's soldiers flood into the room.  
INFERNO: "What is it you request, Royalty?"  
MEGATRON: "The Vokdroids must be destroyed, and the Predacons will be the ones to destroy them! They hold no part in my meticulously cultivated plan. Their time here ends today!" There is a silence. "I said...their time here ends today!"  
SAURPION: "Oh!"  
All of the Predacons cheer. "Yeah!"  
MEGATRON: "Wait just one minute! Where is Rampage?!"  
INFERNO: "What? The fool refuses to present himself before his leader?"  
SAURPION: "He should be mangled for this!" Waspinator whispers to himself.  
WASPINATOR: "Ant-bot and New-body astronomical suck-ups. Waspinator sick to abdomen."  
MEGATRON: "Fine. If that's the way he wants to play it, play it we shall. Computer, trace Rampage's energy signature."  
COMPUTER: "Cannot locate energy signature of unit Rampage."  
MEGATRON: "Blast! He must be near water again. Dinobot, Waspinator, go and find Rampage. The rest of you, check the base's weapons systems."  
DINOBOT: "We shall return him groveling for your forgiveness, mighty Megatron. Beast mode!" He transforms and tears away from the base, followed by Waspinator.  
WASPINATOR: "Waspinator surrounded by suck-ups!" He shakes his head.  
  
***  
  
Dinobot and Waspinator search the shoreline for their elusive team member.  
WASPINATOR: "Ohhh, crab-bot nowhere to be found. Why we keep searching? Waspinator's wings tired." Dinobot stamps his foot, and turns around, stopping Waspinator in his tracks.  
DINOBOT: "Then Waspinator will transform to robot mode and walk! Failure is not an option!" He snaps loudly, and turns back around.  
WASPINATOR: "(Gulp) Waspinator shut up now." He continues to follow.  
DINOBOT: "By the pit, where is that faulty jumper cable?! If he were here right now, I'd beat him to within an inch of his miserable life!" A giant crab jumps out of the water and tackles Dinobot.  
RAMPAGE: "My ears are burning. Perhaps it's because I'm in such a rage right now! You certainly chose your words!"  
DINOBOT: "You have disappointed Megatron one too many times for my tastes! I'll make certain you submit to his leadership, you sickening belly crawler!" He presses his feet against Rampage's underbelly, and forces him off.  
DINOBOT: "Dinobot, Terrorize!" He transforms to robot mode.  
RAMPAGE: "Rampage, Terrorize!" He transforms to robot mode, pulls out his missile launcher, and fires thrice toward his unlikely opponent. Dinobot fires his eye beams on the missiles, detonating them before reaching the target. The force of the explosions blow both warriors to the ground.  
WASPINATOR: "Oh, no! Waspinator help Lizard-bot! Waspinator, Terrorize!" He transforms to robot mode.  
ROCKHARD: "No, you won't!"  
WASPINATOR: "Wha?" Rockhard leaps onto Waspinator, and crushes him flat with his elemental weight. "Waspinator never leaving base again."  
ROCKHARD: "Help Rampage! Barbarize!" The Vokdroids transform to robot mode.  
RAMPAGE: "It'll take more than you've got to beat me!"  
DINOBOT: "I'm not so sure about that!" He fires on Rampage's missile launcher, knocking it from his hand.  
RAMPAGE: "That's not all I've got!" He pulls both of his energy blasters, and fires rapidly in Dinobot's direction. Dinobot outruns the blasts. He leaps into the air, and fires past Rampage, into the sand, kicking up a cloud.  
RAMPAGE: "Bah! I can't see!" Dinobot fires into the cloud, knocking Rampage into the water.  
DINOBOT: "My battle prowess cannot be matched!" Out of the sand cloud jumps Rampage. He sets up for a drop kick, and slams Dinobot squarely in the face, sending him sprawling into the sand. Rockhard and Liquida run over.  
ROCKHARD: "You take care of him?"  
RAMPAGE: "I know of my spark's limitation. There's substantial trauma to his processing system. He'll be out for many cycles before restoration is complete."  
ROCKHARD: "Then we must work quickly if we're to restore your spark to your body. Lug him back to our base." Rampage converts back to beast mode, and slings Dinobot over his back.  
RAMPAGE: "We'll travel faster by water." He crawls into the sea, followed by the turtle and frog.  
WASPINATOR: "Megatron won't like this." Waspinator manages to access his Com-link. "Waspinator to base. Lizard-bot clone has been captured by Vokdroids. Waspinator badly damaged. Send help!"  
  
***  
  
Back at the Vokdroid base, Dinobot is tied onto an operating table. He has bio-wires connecting his spark to Rampage's.  
FORESTATOR: "Now, Rampage, this operation will completely restore your spark, and cut all ties it has to Dinobot. There's nothing to worry about, I know exactly what I'm doing. And there will no pain, since you'll be off-line during the process. Are you ready to proceed?"  
RAMPAGE: "Absolutely. The sooner, ha-ha, the better." Rampage sits another operating table. Forestator leans over for his surgical instruments. Rampage grabs his arm. "And don't try any tricks. I triple-encoded a viral scan operation within my core processor. If you install one byte of information that doesn't belong inside me, I self-destruct, and we all go up in a spectacular explosion, and I don't think any of us want that, now do we?"  
FORESTATOR: "Not at all." He breaks free of the grasp, and picks up his tools. Rampage relaxes on the table.  
RAMPAGE: "Repair mode." He goes off-line.  
FORESTATOR: "Now, to work." He sets to sever with an Energon blade. A loud explosion shakes the cave. "What's going on?"  
ROCKHARD: "Predacons! Deactivate shields!"  
WINDIT: "Shields down! Let's get out there!"  
MEGATRON: "Or perhaps we should invite ourselves in, yes." Megatron flies in, followed by Inferno, Quickstrike and Saurpion.  
ROCKHARD: "How dare you barge in here?!"  
MEGATRON: "You remove two warriors under my command, and how dare me?! You shall be destroyed for your utter insolence!"  
ROCKHARD: "Your so-called warriors are not as loyal as you would like, Megatron."  
MEGATRON: "I know of Rampage's methods and feelings toward me, nothing he has ever done nor will ever do surprises me."  
ROCKHARD: "Soon your force will fall to the power of the Vok!"  
MEGATRON: "I fear you not! Megatron, Terrorize!" He transforms to robot mode.  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Quickstrike, Terrorize!"  
SAURPION: "Saurpion, Terrorize!"  
INFERNO: "Inferno, Terrorize!" They transform to robot mode.  
LIQUIDA: "Leave here, Predacons! You will surely lose this fight!"  
SAURPION: "All talk! Take this!" He fires a poison sting into Liquida's system.  
LIQUIDA: "Oh!" She falls to her knees.  
SAURPION: "Stings, doesn't it?!" He wraps a hand around her neck, and pulls her off the floor. "Megatron will never lose!"  
QUICKSTRIKE: "All right, now, y'all alien buggers done got in our way fer the last time! Yee-hah!"  
WINDIT: "This is insubordination, Snake, and you shall pay for it!" He fires a strong wind toward Quickstrike, blowing him into the wall.  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Shouldn'a done that. Looks like I'm gonna haf ta open me up a can a' kick-keister on ya!" He leaps up, and grabs Windit with his left hand, and clamps the fangs on his right hand into Windit's shoulder. "What'd I tell ya?"  
INFERNO: "Where is the Royalty's loyal Transmetal 2 drone, fiery fool?!"  
FIREFIGHTER: "You won't live to find that information out, Insect!" He accesses his flamethrower, and fires on Inferno. Inferno pulls his flamethrower, and fires back. The flames intertwine and superheat the cave.  
MEGATRON: "This will be the last time you interfere with my forces, Vokdroid!"  
ROCKHARD: "Keep dreaming!" He fires his boulder blaster at Megatron. Megatron ducks, and tackles Rockhard. Rockhard punches him square in the face, knocking him off. Rockhard stands and fires. Megatron freezes the rock, and smashes it when it reaches him. He then spreads a wall of flame toward the alien transformer. Rockhard turns his head from the illumination, his body withstanding the heat. Once it ends, he turns back around to see an ice beam. It instantly freezes his chest, crippling him. He falls to the floor. Megatron walks over, and stomps on his chest.  
ROCKHARD: "Aaahh!"  
MEGATRON: "And so you see, it is you who loses this battle! Tarantulas, now!" The spider, in vehicle mode, zooms into the Vokdroid base, bypassing all opposition, due to the fact that they were busy handling the invading Predacons. He stops and transforms once he reaches Rampage and Dinobot.  
TARANTULAS: "Now, let's see, this shouldn't be too hard to figure out." He sees the damage done to Dinobot. "No! I have to get him online, or we'll never escape this alien stronghold!" He goes to the computer. "Hmmm...ah-ha! If I can re-route Rampage's healing ability into Dinobot, it will greatly add to the energy working toward the repair." With a few key strokes, it's done.  
COMPUTER: "Repair speed quadrupled. Unit Dinobot will be online in 3.9 cycles."  
TARANTULAS: "Ha-ha! I've done it again! Now, just to stall for a few cycles."  
FORESTATOR: "You don't have that much time!" Tarantulas turns to find Forestator staring at him. "My scientific endeavors are none of your business!"  
TARANTULAS: "My teammates are not to be subjected as your science projects!"  
FORESTATOR: "Excuse me? From the information I recently gathered, you have no ties to the Predacons. Forgot about that?"  
TARANTULAS: "I just opened up my mind to things."  
FORESTATOR: "Treachery always lying at the top of that list, of course. Of all of the time The Vok have spent studying you Predacons, we've discovered that there's only one thing you can be trusted to do--betray anyone and everyone! I refuse to aid any of you in this insane war! I'm pulling the plug!" He aims his blaster at Tarantulas' head.  
TARANTULAS: "You can't do this!"  
FORESTATOR: "There's nothing I want more! My goal is to rid this world of you!"  
TARANTULAS: "Actually, I was implying that you'll never get the chance!"  
COMPUTER: "Unit Dinobot fully functional."  
FORESTATOR: "Impossible!" Dinobot sits up on the operating table.  
DINOBOT: "What is going on here?" He looks around. "Vile alien tricks! You will all pay!" He rips the bio-wires from his spark, snapping Rampage out of repair mode.  
RAMPAGE: "This can't be right!" He looks over to see Dinobot. "I knew it! I've been tricked! The reptilian thief lives! And that means you all die!" He stands, and rushes toward Forestator, knocking him into a shelving unit containing liquid-filled beakers.  
TARANTULAS: "You've failed again! The Vok will be eliminated, in time." He converts to vehicle mode, and tears away from the Vokdroid base.  
FORESTATOR: "Rampage, stop! I didn't betray you! Megatron halted surgery!"  
RAMPAGE: "Megatron." He climbs off of Forestator, and enters the raging battle outside the operating room.  
MEGATRON: "So, Vokdroid, you see the power of the Predacons!"  
ROCKHARD: "All I see is your cowardice! To attack us while our guard is down? That's low, Megatron."  
MEGATRON: "No, that's war, Rockhard. You're what's low!" He grinds his heel into Rockhard's chest. "Match point, alien!" He aims his weapon at Rockhard's head, and prepares to fire. He is slammed to the ground with a barrage of missiles, having come from Rampage's missile launcher. "You!"  
RAMPAGE: "This is all your fault! I'd be free to do as I please if you'd never presented yourself in my life!" He walks over to Megatron, grabs his neck, and pulls him off of the floor. "I swear to you, I will rid myself of you and your wretched spark-stealing clone!"  
MEGATRON: "Your life is mine to control, Rampage. Your spark may be inside Dinobot, but it belongs to me! It will always belong to me!"  
RAMPAGE: "I bid you farewell, plague!" His power fails, and he collapses. He looks behind him to see Dinobot attacking his spark.  
DINOBOT: "Stand away from my master!"  
RAMPAGE: "No! Leave my essence alone!"  
ROCKHARD: "Megatron, your reign on Earth ends today! Starting with your technological marvel!" He fires an Energon beam directly at Dinobot's spark.  
MEGATRON: "Noooo!" Dinobot looks on in dismay, with no time to react, yet everything slows down around him, as his short-but-important life flashes before his eyes. He notices the spark casing of his Transmetal 2 armor is missing, quickly figuring out that it was removed for the forced-upon surgery. He then focuses toward the afterlife, knowing that this was the last scene he would ever see. As the Energon beam tickles the air around the advanced robot, Inferno jumps in front of Dinobot, and absorbs the indiscriminate pain. He then crumples into the ground.  
DINOBOT: "What?"  
MEGATRON: "Inferno?" Dinobot bends down on one knee, and cradles Inferno in his arms.  
INFERNO: "I...had to protect the Royalty's creation. She needs you. I've served her well...well enough. I would do it...a million times over. There is nothing more important than serving...the...Queen." His eyes lose their glow, as his body slumps out of life.  
DINOBOT: "He sacrificed himself...for the master's cause."  
MEGATRON: "Dinobot! We have to go! Now!" Quickstrike and Saurpion grab his arms, and pull him along.  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Let's high-tail it, tumbleweed!"  
DINOBOT: "What about the ant?"  
SAURPION: "He's gone! Let's go!"  
WINDIT: "The war is far from over, Predacons!" He blasts a tornado toward the mouth of the cave, funneling the Predacons outside Grid Decigrath.  
MEGATRON: "Back to base, Predacons." They convert to beast mode, and head home. Dinobot stares into the sky. "Dinobot, now!"  
DINOBOT: "Yes." He transforms back to beast mode, and follows.  
  
***  
  
Back at the Predacon Base, all of the warriors emerge from the regeneration tanks.  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Hey, Spider-bot?!"  
TARANTULAS: "Oh, what is it, Fuzor?"  
QUICKSTRIKE: "I just caught m'self wonderin' 'bout the fight today. How come ya helped out Boss-bot? Thought ya left his command."  
TARANTULAS: "I had my reasons."  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Mind tellin' me what they was?"  
TARANTULAS: "Fine! You see, the Vokdroids wanted Rampage to tip the odds in the Beast Wars. Had they acquired more power, I wouldn't be able to control theirs."  
QUICKSTRIKE: "Ya want control over them Tin-horns?! And Boss-bot don't know?!"  
TARANTULAS: "Well, of course he has his suspicions, he always does! But if he thinks he can stop me, he can't. I will be the victor in this war!"  
QUICKSTRIKE: "I sure as spit hope ya're right."  
MEGATRON: "Rampage, may I see you for a moment?"  
RAMPAGE: "What does that blasted tyrant want now?" He marches angrily into the command room.  
MEGATRON: "Ah, there you are. I wanted to talk to you about our little altercation today."  
RAMPAGE: "I want you out of my way, you hear me?! I can't stand you!"  
MEGATRON: "Really now, Rampage, your tone?" Dinobot stands behind Megatron, and clamps down on his spark. The crab robot suffers another power failure. "I've told you before, you don't call the shots around here. Now, although I require your assistance for certain things at this time, I will not suffer your temper-tantrums! However, you will serve as an example." The other Predacons enter the room. "I've let too many slip through my fingers already. So, as I decree, from here on, as Inferno so bravely demonstrated, there is only one way out of the Predacons...death!" He howls with laughter as he watches Rampage claw to life.  



End file.
